PROBLEM
Many Investment firms still depend on monolithic legacy applications for their core Security Reference and/or Holdings data that form the central hub to other middle and back office systems. As a result migrating the firms investment systems to use newer architecture in the ‘cloud’ can be costly and time consuming.
SOLUTION
An approach to migrating to the cloud can include the following –
a. Good understanding of the key interfaces to all systems that use the core apps
b. Define ‘Domain’ specific API’s for access to data from core apps
c. Build API’s using new technology to interface with above core apps.
d. Plan and migrate all non-core apps (such as RISK, Performance, etc) to newer ‘cloud’ architecture using new core API’s
e. Migrate core legacy apps to use the cloud architecture in phases – say by Asset Class
A key challenge with the above is the design of API’s that needs to be defined as a business service instead of technical interfaces. One of the ways to address this is to ensure that the team working on this has members who understand the workings of the legacy apps along with others who not only have deep knowledge of new architecture but also have experience in the ‘Investments’ domain.
